They weren’t easy times, but armed with a degree, a pair of Bermuda shorts and oodles of enthusiasm, I joined the workforce around the time when Sebi wasn’t born and when Harshad Mehta was becoming a phenomenon and his ‘buy-lists’ were the most sought after paper in the financial sectors — attitudes were turning, investors were winning, and the market was rising. The day I joined, the Sensex, which to me then was a mere number, rose 8.5 points. A good omen, I thought.

When I saw her, a humble wide-eyed trainee like me, I knew this was it. That made it three in one day - a job, a Sensex rise, the girl. But how do you woo a girl who apart from the flourishes also has a brain that questions? My editor — the first of many who would invest in my ‘potential’ — gave me the answer in the form of a dream assignment. “Take charge of investing pages for us,” he said. Before I could say, I don’t know the S of Sensex and the I of investing, he was gone.

We didn’t have the Internet those days. So, information about companies came through newspapers, magazines and annual reports. And this monster called The Bombay Stock Exchange Directory, an 18-volume encyclopaedia, weighing a tonne together and containing balance sheet numbers of all listed companies. With nothing more to do, I got to reading it, and believe it or not, it was as racy, as thrilling, as mysterious as a Ludlum-Le Carre rolled into one.

... contd.